Children have always exhibited a great propensity and ability for getting dirty. Children are also notorious for not wanting to bathe, and judiciously avoiding the use of soap.
Most children have a highly active imagination and like to play with toys and other figurines. Numerous attempts have been made to entice children to play with soap by crafting the soap in the shape of a figure or toy. Numerous color schemes have also been used in an attempt to entice children to use soap.
Swartz in U.S. Pat. No. 2,677,913, attempted to entice children to play with soap in which a figurine was partially embedded. The head and feet of the figurine protruded from opposite ends of the soap, but was otherwise hidden from view until the soap was used up and the figure exposed. Because the figurine was largely encased in soap, with only head and feet protruding, there was little incentive for a child to use the soap in order to gain access to the figurine.
United Kingdom Patent No. 627,622 tried to provide incentive to a child to use soap by placing a waterproof capsule containing a tiny toy in a transparent or opaque bar of soap having a conventional rectangular shape. The child could see the tiny toy and/or hear a rattle within the container, thereby realizing that this particular bar of soap contained within it a capsule and a tiny toy. However, with the shape of the soap bar being rectangular, an the toy being very small, and no special exterior container, the interest in the soap by the child was minimal. In passing, it is interesting to note how very small the toy actually is in the U.K. patent, in that, for example, the thickness of the soap around the toy is substantially greater than the size of the toy itself.